I Have been trying for four years to condense my testimony into suitable space for one of our publications, but each added year brings with it so much of blessing that the half can never be told. As the effort to put it into few words seems futile and I can hesitate no longer after the article, "Now and Then," by our Leader, and "Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse," I can only say in the spirit of Martin Luther, Here it is, I cannot do otherwise.
In the Message to the Mother Church, June, 1901, p. 44, referring to vital Christianity, our revered Leader says, "The magnitude of its meaning forbids headlong haste." I have fully realized this, for while my healing was swift, sudden, and decisive, and made a complete change in my life, I knew I must first be tried and proven before giving the result to the Field. Now after five years of working, watching, and praying for the Christ-Mind, Christian Science has unfolded and is unfolding to my awakened sense in its "infinite possibilities," and such a wealth of blessing has been poured out upon me, culminating in our blessed Communion season this year, that the love and gratitude welling up in my heart clamor for expression and must no longer be withheld.
Six years ago I was a miserably sick and unhappy woman, without hope, without God, and without faith in anything. I had been reared by strictly orthodox grandparents, and although surrounded by the tenderest love and care, I was held in bondage through fear of inherited tendency to consumption, all my father's family having passed away with that disease. I had no loving brothers or sisters, and my youth was lonely and full of dread. At the age of four I was wheeled about in a little carriage because of rheumatism in my feet. I grew up a thin, discontented, selfish girl, though trying my best to do right, and longing with my whole heart to be of some use in the world. To this end I took an active part in church and Sunday School work until I was about eighteen years of age, when a fall from a forty-foot embankment ended my usefulness as far as physical activity was concerned. From this time until I was healed, I suffered from spinal trouble and internal injuries. Many times in the hour of sore need, I turned to God, but seemed to receive no answer to my prayers and found no peace of mind. Although I still retained the editorship of a religious paper and wrote on religious subjects, I never felt any assurance that the truths I was advocating were more than beautiful theories.
